Montenegro Police Arrests Suspected Shooters of Journalist

Montenegrin police said they have arrested nine people in connection with an attack on Vijesti newspaper journalist Olivera Lakic, who was shot in the leg in front of her apartment in May 2018.

Olivera Lakic. Photo: Boris Pejovic/EPA

Montenegrin police said on Tuesday that they have arrested nine members of a criminal organisation who are suspected of shooting Olivera Lakic in 2018 and of killing another person in an unrelated case.

Podgorica police chief Milovan Pavicevic said that one suspect, who he identified only by the initials F.B., accompanied by some of the members of his group, followed Lakic on May 8, 2018, from the office of Vijesti daily newspaper to her apartment.

“He waited for her to leave the vehicle and head towards the building entrance, then approached her and caused serious bodily injury to her right leg with a pistol,” Pavicevic told media.

A day after Lakic was shot, hundreds of journalists and NGO activists protested in front of the Montenegrin government building in Podgorica.

The attack was condemned by the EU delegation and US embassy in Podgorica, the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

The 2018 incident was not the first time Lakic was attacked. In 2012, a man in a black tracksuit struck her, also in front of the building where she lives.

The 2012 attack followed a series of threats she received after she wrote a series of articles about the Tara cigarette factory and the Montenegrin Tobacco Company the previous year.